Sheet nº 241
May 2006
The Sahara, land of migration and settlement.
In the past few decades Sub-Saharan
Africa has been experiencing a
strong increase in migratory flows
towards North Africa. Along with this,
the direction of such movements has
changed. Anthropologists, geographers and sociologists set off to
meet some of the main people involved in these migrations, in the nerve
centres of North Africa (Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt)
and the Sahel (Mauritania, Niger,
Burkina-Faso and the Sudan). They
used surveys and field observation
On the road, Burkina Faso.
to identify the ways in which
©IRD/Roger Fauck.
migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa
come to settle in North Africa, and
the routes they take, whether for migration or professional purposes. The researchers studied the consequences of these movements on the local development in
the countries and terrains they pass through. The overview they established an overview gives a picture far from the alarmist statements often made. It provides information not just about people’s movements from South to North, but also highlights
social and spatial compensations generated by the increasingly long-term settlement
of these African migrants in towns of the Sahara.
igration movements are complex and
do not follow any pre-established
pattern. Sylvie Bredeloup, IRD social
anthropologist, and Olivier Pliez, geographer
with the CNRS, report in the journal Autrepart (1),
on work by African and European researchers in
a range of disciplines, concerning exchanges
between the two sides of the Sahara. The first
observation is that African migration is essentially
an inter-African and cross-border flow. Most SubSaharan migrants settled more-or-less permanently in Arab countries (Morocco, Tunisia,
Algeria, Libya) whereas only a minority conti-
M
nued their journey on towards Europe. Their
various movements in the world between Sahara
and Sahel were principally linked to the region’s
recent history. Independence acquired by different countries in the 1950s-60s, the repeated
periods of drought that occurred in the Sahel in
the 1970s, wars (1970-1980) or the differences
in level of development between the North-West
African and the Sahelian sides of the Sahara
prompted people from Sub-Saharan regions to
go to those areas that offered work opportunities.
In this process, the pastoral communities, the
Tuaregs of Niger and Mali and Toubous of Chad,
../...
left to become employed in agriculture and in the
Algerian and Libyan oilfields.
The Saharan regions of North-West Africa have
consequently been the scene of intense urban development. In 30 years, 53 towns have arisen there
compared with 8 in the Sahelian zones of the Sahara.
Governments have contributed to this advancing trend
through measures supporting development in desert
sectors of their national territories. Here, the influx of
newcomers is seen as a means of revitalizing these
isolated areas. Migrant settlement has an impact on
social and environmental conditions in all the places of
transit. The newcomers definitely become part of and
contribute to the urban fabric. In Algeria, for example,
although controls are exerted on circulation of migrants,
it is policy to include them in the development of towns
in the country’s Saharan region where there is a chronic
shortage of labour.
A range of mutual aid structures, formed by religious
organizations or other associative movements, are set
up all along the migratory routes. The migrants can find
support and resources for continuing their journey.
People’s migration plans are built up stage by stage,
depending on information gleaned along the way about
the opportunities available for work and for finding
points to pass through on their continuing journey.
darity imposed by the family is reaching its limits and
parents now encourage their children to finance themselves.
The migrants are highly diverse in their profiles and
situations. A characteristic feature of this form of migration however is the instability of their professional and
legal status. They are not all young, illiterate or from
rural areas. Many have accumulated academic or
professional qualifications and have already had their
first jobs in the large West African cities where they
grew up. However, all the categories distinguished, far
from being fixed and definite, are strongly intermingled.
A student who is officially enrolled at university can
soon find himself in an irregular situation once his family
can no longer finance his needs or his country’s
government is no longer able to make his grant
payments regularly. One of the solutions is to look for
work in the informal trade sector, or to ‘hire out’ temporarily the student’s card temporarily to a clandestine
compatriot in order to pay for studies.
The act of leaving on a journey of migration cannot
be explained only in economic terms. Psychological
factors are also important, such as the desire for emancipation from family obligations. Contrary to an idea
which commonly circulates, it is not the poor who
migrate. The journey entailed is a costly affair. The soli-
Migratory fluxes forge connections between some
very different places but also between participants, and
recreate in varying contexts the conditions of reception
and transit. Media focus on a minority who will resort to
any lengths to pass to the North has generated in the
North-West African countries a tightening-up of border
controls of migrants in response to pressure from
Europe. These new policies of cooperation influence
the lives of those migrants who aim to reach Europe but
also those of people who settle. Saharan towns have
grown and developed as the crossroads of the great
migratory routes. Now they may well risk becoming
dead-ends.
Redaction – IRD : Aude Sonneville
Translation : Nicholas Flay
______________________
(1) Autrepart, journal on the social sciences of the South. "Migrations
entre les deux rives du Sahara". IRD-Armand COLIN Editions, N°362005, p3-20.
For futher information
CONTACTS:
BREDELOUP Sylvie, IRD. Laboratoire Population-Environnement-Développement (LPED). Université de Provence, case 10, 3 place Victor Hugo
13331 Marseille cedex 3, France. Tel : +33 (0)4 91 10 63 61, Email : sylvie.bredeloup@up.univ-mrs.fr
PLIEZ Olivier, CNRS, Centre d’études et de documentation juridique, économique et sociale (CEDEJ), PO box 392, Muhhamad Farid, Cairo,
Egypt, Email: olivier.pliez@laposte.net
IRD Communication :
Aude Sonneville (editor), Tel.: +33 (0)1 48 03 76 07, Email: fichesactu@paris.ird.fr ;
Sophie Nunziati (press officer), Tel.: +33 (0)1 48 03 75 19, Email: presse@paris.ird.fr
REFERENCES
Autrepart, journal on the social sciences of the South. "Migrations entre les deux rives du Sahara", IRD Edition, N°36-2005.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Contact Indigo Base, IRD picture library, Claire Lissalde or Danièle Cavanna, Tel.: +33 (0)1 48 03 78 99, Email : indigo@paris.ird.fr
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